OREANDA-NEWS During the week, the only oil refinery in Serbia, owned by the Serbian oil company NIS, may be shut down due to US sanctions. This was reported by Reuters, citing sources familiar with the situation.

 NIS' problems are related to the fact that the company is 55 percent owned by Gazprom and Gazprom Neft, which means that it is subject to American restrictions imposed by US President Joe Biden. Until recently, Belgrade had sought a postponement seven times, but the sanctions came into force in October.

Croatian operator JANAF, which operates the only oil pipeline leading to Serbia, has already stopped supplies. As a result, the plant was unable to receive the next batch of oil, and now it has only a few days' supply of raw materials left, after which processing will stop.

Earlier, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic indicated that the republic would have enough diesel fuel and gasoline until the end of the year, but he called the sanctions against NIS bad news that would have extremely serious consequences for the whole country in every sense.

Serbia has repeatedly offered Russia to buy out the company, which would have freed it from sanctions, but it was not possible to reach an agreement with representatives of Moscow. According to media reports, the Russian side "would prefer to sell part of its stake in NIS to a third party, perhaps even the United States." The issue was discussed, in particular, with Alexander Dyukov, head of Gazprom Neft, and Pavel Sorokin, Deputy Minister of Energy of Russia, who flew to Belgrade.

NIS is the largest energy company in the Balkans. It is engaged in the exploration, production and processing of oil and natural gas. It owns a network of more than 400 gas stations in Serbia itself, as well as in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Romania. The company provides up to 9 percent of the state budget.